28052011

A double cheeseburger without the cheese.

A seven hour session of customer service work behind me and it was a blast! I got a job at a Finnish hamburger restaurant for the summer and I've done six shifts of work up-to-date. So far four of the shifts have been what my supervisors consider as busy shifts or really busy shifts and I've nailed them, even though I'm still quite new to the job, as well as the whole area of work (meaning that I have no previous knowledge of serving burgers). I've gained positive feedback from my supervisors as well as even some customers, which I understand to be rare. I can't say that I'm great at this work - there's only so much you can do when it comes to handing out burgers and taking orders. But I like to think I'm doing extremely well with the job at the moment and that I'm close to gaining a routine in it. And when I have gained a routine, or the whole work becomes a routine, I can start developing it. That's where my previous knowledge of things comes in.

I thought of a possible slogan for my style of working today. Something that would describe how I work. I came up with "Never stop, unless it's for a smile." 

During the few shifts I've done I've learned that you keep on moving and doing something all the time two things happen. One, time goes by faster. Two, people know you're working hard and doing your best and give you the credit you've deserved for it. Besides if you're doing something all the time, everyone benefits from it. You yourself, your co-workers, your supervisors, your employer and most importantly, the customers.

I've also noticed that effective and good customer service only requires smiling. People react to a smile by smiling back and everyone gets along better and feels better. I've managed to make customers laugh and that has made me feel good about myself too. The problem here is that before my work started, I was given no familiarization as to how to react with customers. I was only given instructions on how to use the cash register, make fries, wipe the tables and serve drinks and burgers. Naturally, you learn best when you're giving out the service in action. But still, no mention of the actual customer service. This is why Finnish customer service tends to be bland. You get what your order but it's missing the personality. After all, every customer situation should be an experience to the customer. That's when you're at the right level of service.

What I'm really looking forward to is developing my job. I think customer service development begins from the employees who are closest to the customers, so that's me there. I've thought of a quite a few ways to develop and improve the current methods of the restaurant's customer service but I would assume that the advice from the new guy might go to deaf ears, so I'm keeping them to myself for the time being. You can't advise others until you've mastered the area yourself.

.my conscience pulled me aside.